It was a medal with announcement. They successfully defended the favorite role: Mario Gyr, Simon Niepmann, Simon Schürch and Lucas Tramèr win the first Olympic gold for the Swiss rower since Xeno Müller and the brothers Grier 1996 in Atlanta.

"Our target wasn’t small at all", said Simon Niepmann after the triumph. All four subordinated everything for the project "Olympic gold" and they never made a secret of that in Rio only the victory counts. And the Swiss quartet rowed their promise with great class home.

The quartet started behave as expected in the great medal race. After a quarter of the distance they are just behind the Danes. At halftime the Swiss pushed powerfully up a gear and took the lead despite a strong headwind. This they built to the finish and left no doubt about the victory.